Why Having a Dedicated Health Savings Account Provider Matters

Offering an HSA alongside your high-deductible health plan (HDHP) is a great way to enhance the employee experience while controlling your benefits budget.

However, it’s important to note that no two HSA providers are the same, and partnering with the right HSA provider can ensure you and your employees get the features, education and support you deserve.

Driving participation and engagement

Did you know that approximately 33% of U.S. adults who have HSA-eligible health care plans DON’T open an account? If left to figure out things on their own, how many employees will choose to not receive the benefits of an HSA?

Employers can significantly increase the participation rate by simplifying the enrollment experience. Choosing a single HSA administrator removes barriers to enrollment by:

• Identifying available administrators
• Completing the vetting process
• Providing enrollment support

Education is also key. The right HSA administrator will have proactive education available for every step of the journey to help employees understand the benefits of HSAs, determine the contribution amount they want to make and use their accounts. When evaluating an HSA administration partner, be sure to ask how they can support your employee education and communication needs.

Focusing on customer experience

It’s also important to think about the participants’ experience with their HSAs. If employees’ HSAs are part of their employee benefits package, then their experience impacts their overall satisfaction with their employer’s benefit offering.

Letting employees choose any administrator in the market guarantees that employees will receive varying levels of quality in their service – both good and bad. It is in the best interest of employers offering HSA-eligible plans to select a strong partner for their HSA administration to make sure that all employees will receive the features, education, service and support they need to get the most from their accounts.

Some of the important features you will want for your employees include:

• FDIC-insured deposit balances
• Secure account access with intuitive participant portal and convenient mobile app
• Flexible payment options including debit card, ATM access, direct deposit and online bill pay
• Integrated investment experience with low-cost, highly-rated investment options
• Educational tools & resources
• Superior customer service

Choosing a single administrator benefits the employer too.

At enrollment time, the employer will be able to monitor the enrollment progress to make sure all employees who elected to participate have opened accounts. No more panic when the first pay period occurs and payroll deductions have been collected but some employees don’t have accounts yet. Also, depending on how the employer chooses to fund the employees’ accounts, having a single administrator removes the need to collect all the administrator names, routing numbers and account numbers in order to deposit funds into accounts.

Some of the important features you will want for your team include:

• Easy-to-use plan management tools for enrollments, terminations and changes
• Streamlined workflows including data integrations with HRIS, payroll, benefits administration and other partners
• Educational support from industry professionals for your annual enrollment meetings, benefit fairs and more
• Insightful analytics to understand how your plan is performing and how you compare to similar employers
• Superior customer service

Customer experience matters – for you and your employees.

Simplifying the complicated

Due to their popularity, some financial providers have added HSAs as a service despite not being able to offer the tools and resources your employees need to use and manage their accounts effectively.

Businesses that partner with your organization for other services (such as loans and commercial banking) may end up with an inferior HSA experience due to cumbersome program and platform limitations. As a part of this, your provider should offer a variety of tools and resources to improve the overall HSA experience for your team.

Try to find a provider that offers ongoing educational support and a dedicated team solely focused on improving the financial wellness of your employees.

Often, dedicated HSA providers will offer these benefits as a part of their HSA administration packages, so you should always double-check to ensure your provider has the tools and resources you need to support your team in meeting their financial goals.

There are many HSA administrators in the market, but not all administrators have the same level of expertise. By choosing a single administrator for all your employees, you can help ensure that all your employees receive the support they need.

Why does this matter?

HSAs can be complex. There are rules about opening accounts, rules about how much and when you can contribute, rules about using the money from the accounts, and more. There are tax forms to prepare and distribute to participants. Getting it wrong can have serious consequences for your employees.

For these reasons, it pays to pick an HSA administrator who has a dedicated team to ensure your HSA program is as simple and effective as possible.

And, simplifying the experience is important for your team, too.

Imagine there is an enrollment or contribution issue that needs to be corrected. Who does the employer call? If employees have chosen their own administrators and an issue arises, the employer has no relationship with the administrators and can’t address the issue. They will have to work with the employee and get them to work with their administrator increasing everyone’s time commitment and frustration. When the employer has a relationship with a single administrator, there is one place to call when help is needed.

Effective HSA administration is built on a foundation of trust and communication so you should partner with an administrator that has a reputation for creating and curating superior experiences for their clients.

Delivering actionable insights

Receiving access to plan insights is another important reason to partner with a single administrator. The right administrator will be able to provide the analytics you need to assist with your strategic benefit planning, and unless your entire employee population is included, the data will be incomplete.

Why data analytics for your HSA?

Health plan changes. When looking at the different deductible levels available, it would be helpful to know how prepared employees are to be able to cover the new deductible.

Educational needs. Analytics can help you determine whether employees understand their HSAs based on their utilization so you can decide where to focus your efforts – and after the initiative is done, how effective it was.

Market intelligence. In the war for talent, analytics can help you understand how your offering stacks up against similar companies so you can remain competitive in the job market.

Be sure to choose an HSA administrator who can deliver the insights you need to increase employee enrollment, engagement and satisfaction.

Explore how a dedicated HSA provider can work for you

By choosing a single HSA provider, you can more effectively attract and retain talent with benefits that directly and positively impact your employees’ daily lives—now and in the future.

A best-in-class HSA provider will work closely with you to help achieve the goals and objectives your business has set while delivering the service you expect.

Our team at Associated Benefits Connection® is committed to helping businesses and individuals in our community thrive through our personalized service and leading-edge offerings, including HSA administration.

For information about what Associated Benefits Connection can offer to you and your employees, contact our team.